# SFC Stephen Kofron, U.S. Army Special Forces, Afghanistan Horse Soldiers

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/veterans-chronicles-608161/sfc-stephen-kofron-u-s-army-special-forces-afghanistan-horse-soldiers
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/veterans-chronicles-608161/sfc-stephen-kofron-u-s-army-special-forces-afghanistan-horse-soldiers.md
Podcast: [Veterans Chronicles](https://stenobird.com/podcast/veterans-chronicles-608161)
Published: 2026-01-07T12:00:09+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/sfc-stephen-kofron-u-s-army-special-forces-afghanistan-horse-soldiers--69332095
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/69332095/20260107_steve_kofron_final.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/veterans-chronicles-608161/episodes/sfc-stephen-kofron-u-s-army-special-forces-afghanistan-horse-soldiers
Duration seconds: 2139

## Resource

Steve Kofron's father and grandfather both served in the military. His grandfather was a U.S. Marine who fought at Iwo Jima. But Kofron had his own reasons for joining the service and the U.S. Army in particular. After a few years, he successfully completed Ranger training. But a short time later he pursued U.S. Army Special Forces and earned his Green Beret. Not long after that, the 9/11 terrorist attacks struck the United States and Operational Detachment Alpha (ODA) 595 was among the first units deployed to Afghanistan. In this edition of Veterans Chronicles , Kofron gives us a peek at his elite training, preparing to deploy after 9/11, and flying into Afghanistan. He describes becoming a horse soldier (which he had not planned on) and teaming up with Northern Alliance fighters to take on the Taliban. Kofron tells us about riding horses in steep mountain paths with sheer cliffs just inches away and calling in devastating air strikes on Taliban positions. He details the intense combat at Tiangi Pass near Mazar-i-Sharif and what happened when they finally got to the city.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/veterans-chronicles-608161/episodes/sfc-stephen-kofron-u-s-army-special-forces-afghanistan-horse-soldiers/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/veterans-chronicles-608161/sfc-stephen-kofron-u-s-army-special-forces-afghanistan-horse-soldiers.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.